In this episode, we are joined by Jairam Ramesh to discuss his new book, The Light of Asia: The Poem That Defined the Buddha. Ramesh, author, Member of Parliament, former Union Minister, and Congress leader, digs deep in his new book to bring out the fascinating story behind the epic 1879 poem, The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold, that took the world by storm and in some ways, brought the Buddha's storyto the world at the turn of the last century.

Ramesh's book is a biography both of the poem and of the man who wrote it, an Englishman who briefly lived in India, became a scholar of Sanskrit, was a voracious translator and later poet in his own right, and a man of contradictions, who had a deep affinity for Indian philosophy and literature, but was also a defender of empire. We discuss how and why Arnold's work came to influence an extraordinary range of 20th century figures from Gandhi and Nehru to C.V. Raman, and its continuing relevance today.

Host: Ananth Krishnan, China Correspondant, The Hindu

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